The effects of yesterday’s tornado in the Oklahoma City suburbs spread all the way east to Flushing. Jeremy Hefner was born and raised in the town that received the brunt of the damage.

“For the first 10 years of my life, I lived in Moore, Okla.,” the Mets starter said after last night’s 4-3 loss to the Reds at Citi Field. “I couldn’t have [lived] more than a mile, maybe even less, from where the tornado hit.”

With cellular phone towers in the Oklahoma City area overloaded, it took a while before Hefner could reach his family.

“When I first heard it was in Moore, I was freaking out. [Most] of my dad’s family — 75 percent of them — live within five miles of where the tornado hit. So it was pretty tense until I heard from them. It was probably 2 1/2 hours before I fully knew that everybody was OK and everybody’s house was OK.”

Hefner attended one of the two elementary schools that were severely damaged by the twister that packed winds up to 200 miles per hour.

“I went to Briarwood Elementary School for kindergarten and first grade, and then my family moved to a different neighborhood within the Moore school district,” he recalled. “We moved two years before the big tornado in 1999 [a twister that caused 41 deaths and $1.4 billion in damage]. I’ve never been in a tornado, but I’ve had to seek shelter. It’s just part of the lifestyle.”

Hefner’s former elementary school being affected by the tornado weighed heavily on his mind.

“You hear about the kids and it’s unfathomable,” he said. “It’s gut-wrenching. I wish I could go home right now and help out, and do whatever I can to help those families. I wish I was there when it happened — I could have helped pull kids out. You feel helpless watching on TV. All I can do now is pray and send good thoughts.”

Hefner grew up in an area known for tornadic outbreak — his Twitter biography says he is located in “Tornado Alley & Queens,” even though he now lives in Tulsa, about 110 miles northeast of Moore. He said dealing with tornadoes is just part of the territory.

“I hate to say you get used to it, but there’s a certain sense of comfort in we know what to do when those situations arise,” he said. “There’s safety precautions and procedures whenever you’re in an area under a tornado warning. If you follow them, chances are that you’re going to be OK.”

Despite the frequency of tornadoes in his state, Hefner said he won’t move out of the state, nor encourage his family to leave.

“Once you’ve lived there and you’re part of the community and the atmosphere, you don’t want to leave,” he said. “I come here during the season to play, and love my time in New York, but my home and heart is in Oklahoma.”

Hefner expressed confidence the Oklahomans affected by the tornado would rally together and recover.

“People from Oklahoma are resilient and hardworking,” he said. “Just like the tornado in 1999, this will only make them stronger. … I guarantee you that the people affected, they’re going to rebuild and love Oklahoma just like they did before it happened.”